1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to portable computers, and more particularly to a portable computer fabricated in such a manner that an AC adaptor is housed or detached in a battery pack-receiving bay of the portable computer.
2. Description of the Related Art
When ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator And Calculator), using over 20,000 vacuum tubes was marketed as the first computation-oriented computer, its weight was almost 30 tons. Despite limited use in a specific field, a computer has been widely adopted in the general public thanks much to brilliant technological development. In particular, the rapid technological development of semiconductor devices have resulted in making a large-capacity computer much smaller, thus leading to appearance of a personal computer which may be portable for use any place or any time.
A portable computer can be differentiated from a desktop computer in terms of its movability, simplicity, and various functions which may replace a desktop computer.
Thus, if some peripheral devices in the portable computer may be efficiently used, it can be safely said that a portable computer may be in a position to meet the current trends of replacing a desktop computer. The typical portable computer may include laptop computer, notebook computer, and palmtop computer.
Generally, an earlier portable computers, DC power for the computer is either supplied by a battery pack housed within a battery receiving bay formed in the portable computer or from an AC adaptor connected to an external AC power source, the adaptor being connected to the portable computer through a DC outlet cable.
In the absence of external AC power, a portable computer operates with power supply from the battery pack.
On the other hand, when external AC power is available, power is supplied to the portable computer by the AC adaptor and the battery is also charged by the DC power from the AC adaptor.
If the battery pack is always mounted within the portable computer with which the AC adaptor is connected to, an incomplete discharge/charge repetition may induce a memory effect in the battery pack which shortens the battery pack's life.
Although the above-described portable computer was originally device for portable use, in a light of the fact that such portable computers now have almost the same performance as a desk top computer and the convenience of moving and working in a relatively narrow space, there is a trend for a great number of users to prefer a portable computer to a desk top computer.
Nevertheless, the portable computer has an inconvenience in that the AC adaptor must be carried separately and always placed near the portable computer while occupying some area while the battery pack is mounted within the portable computer all the time. Therefore, problems arise in that the AC adaptor is apt to be lost or damaged by careless handling and the battery pack may suffer from degradation and short battery life due to the memory effect.
The Chiou, U.S. Pat. No. 5,567,176, entitled Two-Purpose Power Supply Device For Computers, discloses an AC adaptor which may be disposed either within a portable computer battery receiving bay or connected to the portable computer via a DC power cord.
However, the Chiou patent does not teach or suggest the use of a separate DC jack for supplying the DC power from the AC adaptor to an external device as in the present invention.
The following patents each disclose systems in which some sort of power adaptor is used in place of a battery in a battery chamber. However, none of these patents teaches or suggests the use of a DC jack for supplying the DC power from the AC adaptor to an external device as in the present invention: U.S. Pat. No. 4,847,513 to Katz et al., entitled Power-Operated Device With A Cooling Facility, U.S. Pat No. 5,350,949 to Yazi, entitled Power Supply Interface, U.S. Pat. No. 3,201,742 to English, entitled Electric Connector, U.S. Pat. No. 4,946,396 to Saitoh, entitled Adapter For Connector To External Power Supply, U.S. Pat. No. 5,296,315 to Rein, entitled Device To Permit The Use Of Non-Standard Batteries To Power Battery Operated Devices, and U.S. Pat. No. Des. 367,258 to Olexa Jr., entitled 9.6V Battery Eliminator Cartridge.